The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1913. THE ANTARCTIC TRAGEDY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8352, 12 February 1913, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1913. THE ANTARCTIC TRAGEDY

After a long silence, extending over more than thirteen months, we get news of Captain Scott, the intrepid explorer and his four brave companions who in January of last year were about to make their “dash for the south pole.” Unhappily, the news we receive is that of disaster. Scott and his comrades are no more. They perish- ■ ed in a blizzard—a fierce and bitter blizzard the terror of which is difficult to imagine—in the white wastes of Antarctica—and to-day the world mourns the loss of those heroes of exploration and science. It is something more than a consolation to know that the party had achieved their object. They had actually reached the southernmost extremity of our planet, the point where latitude and longitude meet, and had there discovered Roald Amundsen’s records. The success of the expedition, consummating a long series of adventurous endeavours by Scott himself and others of his race, will, after Time has assuaged the first poignancy of their grief, afford considerable solace to the bereaved relatives of Scott and hia party, to whom the sympathy of all nations will go out to-day. In addition to his achievements as ah Antarctic explorer in the last eleven years, the central figure of this disaster has a fine record of service in the British navy. His life’s work will endure as a shining example of courage, enters prise, and endurance, an,embodiment of the manly virtues that have . made the race famous and history rich with it* records. How aptly do Tennyson’s lines in reference to John Franklin, with slight alteration, apply to the end of Robert Scott: Not here; the white South has thy bones, And thou, heroic sailor soul, Art passing on thine happier voyage now Toward no earthly pole. The narrative appearing in our news columns this morning is one to stir the heart and inspire the imagination of the least impressionable. It is. a story of heroio fortitude, a moving record of hardships endured courageously, of ill-luck fought against to the bitter end. How pluckily those men assisted one another until at last Scott himself, his body starved and frozen, _ dropped his pen . and sank down to die beside the bodies of his companions, can never be fully related; but we know enough to realise something of the magnificent spirit in which the disaster was met. Not one word or note of complaint; no sign of regret is there; nobody is reproached. In his dying moments the explorer’s heart was full of thoughts lor the dear ones he and his comrades were leaving, and a dignified appeal is made that they may not suffer the pangs of material want. Captain Scott, we may hope and believe, died assured that his appeal would fall on sympathetically responsive ears. It is one of the most pathetic circumstances of this grim tragedy of the South that when Scott wrote his last words the survivors were actually within eleven miles of a food depot, and that they knew they were in such _ close proximity. This alone is sufficient proof of the abnormal fierceness of the weather and the intensity of the cold. After all his careful study of the conditions, spread over a period of many years, Scott found Nature too profoundly mysterious and hostile, when he had reason to hope that bis magnificent undertaking was safely accomplished. Having fulfilled his quest and conquered the mystery of the pole, and having calculated the risks and dangers of the whole adventure with the utmost skill and care, he encountered the unexpected—and perished. Nevertheless, _ a great achievement, stands to his imperishable honour, to say nothing of the glorious revelation that his diary furnishes of how those awful dangers were endured. Out of the waste spaces of the frozen South comes a pitiful tale of acute suffering, it is tnie; hut there emerges also a splendid example of sacrifice and fearless daring which constitutes a noble legacy to the British people arid to all the world. _ Not less heroio than that of the victims was the behaviour of the other members of the expedition. The long months of dreary suspense must have been sufficient to try the nerves of men of iron. The hazardous work of . the search parties was carried out with a grim determination that knew no faltering nor thought of turning back. The melancholy enterprise was persevered with until, at last, after many days of struggle with Nature in her harshest mood, they discovered in that solitary desert of snow and ice.the tent under which were the frozen bodies of the men who found the pole. To all of the survivors of this memorable enterprise there will be extended, together with a welcome back to safety, the gratitude and admiration of all true men and women for their manly part in the undertaking. Not theirs is the fault that their chief and others have left their bones in the snowy wastes of the Antarctic. Every mhn of the whole party, wo do not doubt in the least, did his part bravely and well. And so ends the last voyage of Captain Robert Scott—a triumph and yet a tragedy.